Law opinion
Rewards of a just war
Mufassil M M Islam
Survival of the fittest' -- natural phenomenon agreed by many -- is no longer a conclusive fact as we humans endeavour to uphold the living rights of the most downtrodden and disadvantaged. We lament for the extinction of the rarest of birds in nature and wonder about the presupposed behavioural norms of the long gone Neanderthals.
Time has progressed far enough to browse for anything on the net and share our thoughts with someone in the farthest corner of the globe in the Pitcairn islands with the blink of an eye as we are blessed with the purple world of the Internet.
Civilisation has shaped and evolved with alarming pace as different races established their presence in the corridors of various geographical zones by either systematically wiping out our very own human races or diluting the races in the name of ethnic cleansing and peaceful coexistence. We reflect to the times not long ago in 1560s and 1570s when Mr. Tamanaco (http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Mariches) had fought for the rights of his indigenous tribe's existence in Venezuela against the Spanish and was killed and wiped out forever along with all of his tribesmen. We reflect how the population of the uprooted Indians from our Indian sub-continent settled as sugar cultivators in Guyana. The Apache Indians and the tales of the last of Mohicans (http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/The_Last_of_the_Mohicans) warn us of impending and unseen stigma ever present in our societies. We still wonder why Jalal Ad Din Rumi wrote in Masnavi in the universal message of love:
Lover's nationality is separate from all other religions,
The lover's religion and nationality is the Beloved (God).
The lover's cause is separate from all other causes
Love is the astrolab of God's mysteries. (http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Jalal_ad-Din_Muhammad_Rumi)
We have learnt to celebrate our diversities and one of the major reasons to allow London to host the 2012 Olympics was its pride in ethnic diversity. As humans we have the rights to live, cherish and celebrate our ethnic uniqueness and we have the positive rights to safeguard them against fascist aggressors and have the negative rights not to be violated.
UNO and other international organisations and their present trend to form zonal associations to preserve human existence and cultural distinctions as long these are not self-destructive within the very core of humanity. Hence, EU has the right to keep the very uniqueness of European cultures in Europe but at the same time does not have the right to push out people of other parts of the world who are resident there with their alien cultural identities and have been living there for generations. Yet, we need to compromise with the rights to live and let live and allow others to enjoy their differences from within our own cultures. This is humanity.
Words of wisdom and words of God are not deterrent to the people whose moralities are dead and 'hearing they hear not and seeing they see not' and with this practical end in view various International Tribunals have been created to deter future criminals against humanity. It is worth viewing the War Compensation Forum and International War Crimes Tribunal matters in these issues. (www.k2.dion.ne.jp/~rur55/ E/epage0.htm and deoxy.org/wc /warcrim2.htm).
India was divided on the basis of religion and East and West Pakistan were created with India in the middle. History reveals many lands which are bordered to confirm the boundaries of religious tenets. Ireland and Northern Ireland are still trying to find a solution to their religious fires at a time when they have hardly any other socio-cultural differences from having a united Ireland. From our St. Martin to the Caribbean islands of St. Lucia. St. Helena, the names suggest the role of religion in naming the new found lands in the mid-centuries. The British, the Spaniards and the Portuguese played enormously in brutally misplacing the aborigines from the South America and forever uprooting them by brining the enslaved Africans and even many Europeans to replace them. When the British took over the Barbados islands, the land was dominated by the French speaking people with the Spanish law at work which was soon replaced by the English legal system. There were incentives from indentured work-force and the Roman Catholics in the forms of lands to migrate to the Latin American nations. The Irish Gaelic language is coming back strongly in search of the roots in the Irish Republic and many can speak the language unlike the Irish people in the Northern Ireland where anyone can hardly speak any other language other than English owing to the strong ties with the central government in England.
We, Bengalis are one of the most brilliant and freedom loving races in the world and we have proven that in leading the sub-continent in literature (Rabindranath Tagore), filmmaking (Satyajit Roy), songs (Kishore Kumar), science (Jogodish Chandra Bosu), philosophy (Swami Vivekananda), freedom mentality (Kazi Nazrul Islam), nationalistic fervour (Netaji Shuvash Chandra) and Economics (Dr. Amartya Sen and even peace (Dr. M. Yunus). It was a very disturbing issue to have a united Bengali zeal running through the veins in Bengal. The Te-Bhaga movement or the Banga Bhanga Movement did play formidable role in getting the whole of Bengal thinking. But at the same time, religious differences are not an issue to be bullied. But to bank on the issue of religion in pushing a nation in keeping with another alien cultural power is a national betray, rather a treason. When Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called for the Independence of Bangla and we all showed our support to him, the national sentiment and the national opinion towards that goal was expressed and to go against such a national sentiment was in reality a move against the national de facto referendum. It was also in violation of the UN Resolution 1514 which the Pakistani regime blatantly ignored.
International research works on Bangladesh's war of independence notes with surprise as to the fact that our government's efforts to realise compensations from Pakistan and to try the war criminals in International Tribunals died in a quagmire. It appears to many that we had to give in to the invisible pressure of compromising with the enemies of the State in exchange of a term 'peaceful coexistence'. This neglect of the national scars is giving rise to many in the new generation as to how much we really suffered. Time is still there to have our war-criminals tried (must be in an unquestionably independent war tribunal) so that the real picture of the extent of the atrocities on our nation in the forms of mass-rapes, genocides and kidnappings surface. Islam is our religion and so is the religion of most of the Pakistanis and at the same time we must also believe that many Pakistanis of the present generation feel ashamed and regret the atrocities committed by their forefathers in Bangladesh.
I wonder how the so-called Islamic scholars supported the genocide by the Pakistanis in name of Islam when the regime sent out tanks to suppress the unarmed Bengalis. The true and correct interpretation of the Sura Taoba is needed to be taught again to these blind zealots who are in fact educated yet unwise. The unity of the Islamic Ummah does not mean drowning our cultural identities and allowing the slaughtering of our roots. An enjoyable, educated and easy way to learn about a just Islamic war would be to watch the Hollywood Blockbuster 'Kingdom of Heaven,' which was made by the Christians in profuse respect to Saladin.
* Our liberation war is among the handful of successful wars in the world, which was a war to establish:
* Our economic rights;
* Our religious rights to live a unique Islamic life akin to our culture;
* Our rights to govern ourselves;
* Our rights not to have a permanent animosity with our neighbours solely on the basis of religion and
* Above all to have our identity reflect and upheld to all other nations with pride about our own race.
We have proved to the world with generations of struggle that freedom of a nation, freedom of a race and freedom of an ethnic society are bound to fruit if we remain united.
But in order to keep enjoying our freedom, we need to ensure legal framework of our freedom and unique identity as well. A few of the issues which our legislative, judiciary and executive need to ponder are issues that have no legal attention as of yet and may cause social unease in future such as:
* concerted national educated system which will not allow any foreign curriculum to prevail in any of our schooling systems;
* government approved watch dog in the shape of think tanks;
* a unquestionable civil rule where the Armed forces will work as guards of our sovereignty;
* a judicial system and police force where people will have reliance and we will have all black laws annulled;
* no hurried Tribunals will be created to allow criminals to clean themselves with excuses of unconstitutional trials in future and above all a constitutional research to rethink whether an upper chamber of our Parliament is a necessity now.
The rips of a just war, a war which was acknowledged with respect as we took our seat among the international community is destined to deliver the rewards to us in time as we struggle as a nation to develop, but we must all remember, all nations have had to pass through a phase in national history which we can 'seal mark' as our learning times. We will one day, look behind these troubled times and with a smile in our cheeks say, 'We made it through'.
The writer, Human Rights Advocate, is President and CEO, Law Offices of Islam and Associates.
